A satellite based positioning of a device is supported by various Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS). These include for example the American Global Positioning System (GPS), the Russian Global Navigation Satellite System (GLONASS), the future European system Galileo, the Space Based Augmentation Systems (SBAS), the Japanese GPS augmentation Quasi-Zenith Satellite System (QZSS), the Locals Area Augmentation Systems (LAAS), and hybrid systems.
The constellation in GPS, for example, consists of more than 20 satellites that orbit the earth. Each of the satellites transmits two carrier signals L1 and L2. One of these carrier signals L1 is employed for carrying a navigation message and code signals of a standard positioning service (SPS). The L1 carrier phase is modulated by each satellite with a different C/A (Coarse Acquisition) code. Thus, different channels are obtained for the transmission by the different satellites. The C/A code is a pseudo random noise (PRN) code, which is spreading the spectrum over a 1 MHz bandwidth. It is repeated every 1023 bits, the epoch of the code being 1 ms. The carrier frequency of the L1 signal is further modulated with navigation information at a bit rate of 50 bit/s. The navigation information comprises inter alia ephemeris and almanac parameters. Ephemeris parameters describe short sections of the orbit of the respective satellite. Based on these ephemeris parameters, an algorithm can estimate the position of the satellite for any time while the satellite is in the respective described section. The almanac parameters are similar, but coarser orbit parameters, which are valid for a longer time than the ephemeris parameters. The navigation information further comprises for example clock models that relate the satellite time to the system time of GPS and the system time to the Coordinated Universal Time (UTC).
A GPS receiver of which the position is to be determined receives the signals transmitted by the currently available satellites, and it detects and tracks the channels used by different satellites based on the different comprised C/A codes. Then, the receiver determines the time of transmission of the code transmitted by each satellite, usually based on data in the decoded navigation messages and on counts of epochs and chips of the C/A codes. The time of transmission and the measured time of arrival of a signal at the receiver allow determining the pseudorange between the satellite and the receiver. The term pseudorange denotes the geometric distance between the satellite and the receiver, which distance is biased by unknown satellite and receiver offsets from the GPS system time.
In one possible solution scheme, the offset between the satellite and system clocks is assumed known and the problem reduces to solving a non-linear set of equations of four unknowns (3 receiver position coordinates and the offset between the receiver and GPS system clocks). Therefore, at least 4 measurements are required in order to be able to solve the set of equations. The outcome of the process is the receiver position.
Similarly, it is the general idea of GNSS positioning to receive satellite signals at a receiver which is to be positioned, to measure the time it took the signals to propagate from the satellite to the receiver, to deduce therefrom the pseudorange between the receiver and the respective satellite and further the current position of the receiver, making use in addition of estimated positions of the satellites. Usually, a PRN signal which has been used for modulating a carrier signal is evaluated for positioning, as described above for GPS.
In a further approach known as Real Time Kinematics (RTK), the carrier phases measured at two GNSS receivers are evaluated for determining the distance and attitude between the two receivers very accurately, typically at cm- or even mm-level accuracy. The combination of the distance and attitude between two receivers is also referred to as baseline. The carrier phase measurements that are performed at GNSS receivers for a RTK positioning may be exchanged in real-time or be stored for a later exchange known as post-processing. Usually, one of the GNSS receivers is arranged at a known location and called reference receiver, while the other receiver is to be positioned with respect to the reference receiver and called user receiver or rover. The determined relative position can further be converted into an absolute position, if the location of the reference position is accurately known. However, the RTK calculations actually require that the positions of both receivers are known at least approximately. These positions can be obtained from determined pseudoranges.
A satellite signal is distorted on its way from a satellite to a receiver due to, for instance, multipath propagation and due to influences by ionosphere and troposphere. Moreover, the satellite signal has a bias due to the satellite clock bias and its carrier phase has unknown initial phase. When the satellite signal is measured in the receiver, it is further distorted. The signal measurement contains, in addition to previous errors, errors due to, for instance, receiver noise and receiver time bias. In traditional RTK, all or most of these errors are assumed to correlate between the receivers and satellites, in which case the errors vanish in double differencing.
The relative positioning may thus be based more specifically on signal measurements at two GNSS receivers, which are used to form double difference observables. Such signal measurements may include for example carrier phase measurements and PRN code measurements, etc. A double difference observable relating to the carrier phase is the difference in the carrier phase of a specific satellite signal at both receivers compared to the difference in the carrier phase of another satellite signal at both receivers. A double difference observable relating to the PRN code is obtained correspondingly. The double difference observables can then be employed for determining the position of the receivers relative to each other at high accuracy.
A relative positioning of GNSS receivers making use of double difference observables has been described for example in U.S. Pat. No. 6,229,479 B1.
With a standard GNSS positioning, two GNSS receivers are able to determine their location, and therefore the baseline between them, with an accuracy of 5 to 20 meters. Compared to such a standard GNSS positioning, it is an advantage of the RTK approach that it allows determining the baseline with a much higher accuracy of 0.1 to 10 cm. It is noteworthy that this accuracy can be achieved with standard commercial GNSS-receivers.
Originally, RTK has only been available for geodesic surveying and other applications requiring a high accuracy. The equipment required for such applications is expensive and meant, therefore, only for professional use. However, it is also possible to obtain a high-precision baseline using two low-cost GNSS-enabled handsets, for example terminals with integrated GNSS-receiver or terminals equipped with an external Bluetooth GNSS-receiver. The data between the terminals can be exchanged using any kind of data transfer technology, like general packet radio service (GPRS), wireless local area networks (WLAN) or Bluetooth™. This allows the baseline to be determined and updated in real-time, while in many conventional solutions, the baseline is determined off-line. This approach is also called mobile Real-Time Kinematics (mRTK), indicating that mobile technology is used to expand the RTK use cases and bring the benefits of the technology to a wider audience.
Whenever a baseline between a user receiver and a reference receiver is to be updated using mRTK, some information on signal measurements has to be exchanged between the receivers. For example, if the positioning calculations are carried out at a user receiver, the user receiver has to obtain results of signal measurements from the reference receiver. The required signal measurements may comprise, but are not limited to, in particular a pseudorange value, a carrier phase value, a Doppler frequency, a carrier phase polarity and cycle slip information for each received GNSS signal. In addition, time and position information is needed, which is common to all the measured signals. The amount of the required measurement information is thus considerable and consequently, also the bandwidth required for data relay is substantial.
The required bandwidth is in particular an issue, when a high update frequency is to be used in a positioning.
The typical update frequency is 1 Hz, but in high-precision applications, such as moving particle trajectory determination or writing, a higher update frequency is required.
The effect of the update frequency on an RTK positioning is illustrated in FIG. 1. A terminal including a user receiver moves on a circular trajectory that is indicated in FIG. 1 with a solid line 1. The terminal is circling the origin with a period of 5 seconds. A dotted line 2 connects the five positions 3 that are determined with the typical update frequency of 1 Hz. It can be seen that this trajectory deviates significantly from the true circular trajectory 1. If the update frequency is increased tenfold to 10 Hz, the true trajectory is captured very well when connecting the determined positions, indicated as dots 4 in FIG. 1. However, conventionally, this means that a reference receiver has to send the result of signal measurements to the terminal at 10-fold frequency. This also increases the amount of transmitted data and thus the required bandwidth by ten.
This is often not acceptable, because in many applications in which a high baseline update-frequency is desired, the required bandwidth is not available or a cost issue.